Undone || Malec

TEN

Rafael slowly blinked his eyes open, mind foggy as he tried to make sense of where he was. What had happened? Where was he? He blinked the blur away until he focused on a dark ceiling. Then, his eyes darted about as he wondered about his brother's well-being.

Now he remembered.

He let out a breath of relief upon spying his little brother asleep next to him on a bed. The golden sheets covered the blue boy's body which rose steadily in his sleep. Rafael took in his whereabouts and deduced they were in Magnus' apartment. The layout was similar to his parent's room back in their future.

His head began to spin as he remembered the events over the past few hours. A quick glance out the window showed it was early morning. So much had happened that, only now was he given a chance to process. Valentine was dead, the angel was raised, Jace came back to life, a hell-hound attacked his father and Max killed it. They had been revealed. At the time, Rafael hadn't cared in the slightest that the cat was out of the bag but now he knew that the Shadowhunters would be asking questions.

There wasn't much left to do but tell the truth. However, they needed a back-up plan as to not screw up their timeline. He and Max were in serious danger of not existing, especially considering their parents' current fragile state of relationship. Looks like Max would have to erase some memories after all. Firstly, they needed to make sure their family could trust them and help them find a way to get home.

Rafael turned to Max and smiled at the Warlock's snores. Pulling the covers away, Rafael couldn't spot any injuries and felt grateful that Magnus had been able to help. Thinking of injuries, his hand ghosted over the point on his stomach where he'd been bitten. There was a dull ache but the skin was unmarred. An iratze or two were probably activated to speed up the process.

He turned back to Max and gently coaxed him awake by stroking through his hair. They needed to gather themselves. They had a big conversation coming up. Slowly Max roused from his sleep but, like Rafael, once he remembered what had happened, he sprung up and looked round wildly.

"Sh, sh, it's alright." Rafael soothed.

"Raf! You're alright!" Max grinned and pounced on his brother.

"Of course I'm alright you blue idiot. You're the one who went crazy." Rafael scolded.

"Sorry ... I saw the blood and couldn't stop myself lashing out." Max replied and pulled away sheepishly. Despite the fond feeling blooming in his chest, Rafael had to push on.

"Thanks for your concern, but now thanks to your tantrum the others will be wanting answers." Rafael sighed. Max bit his lip, unsure what to say. He felt like he was being a little harsh on his brother so softened up a bit. "Look, good job on killing the demon, but you need to be more wary about your well-being. Also maybe keep it more subtle next time?" Rafael smirked, mirth creeping into his tone.

Max gave a cheeky smile and nodded without saying anything. After a moment of silence, they caught the tail ends of conversation muffled through the bedroom door. The brothers shared an anxious look. "Can you activate a hearing rune to see how much trouble we're in?" Max asked. Rafael nodded and grabbed his stele off the side table which one of them must have left. That was a good sign, it showed they trusted them enough to use the stele and not activate any aggressive runes. Rafael felt a little guilty violating that trust by using the hearing rune but he needed to gauge the situation.

"I still think we should have restrained them." Came Jace's annoyed voice.

"We need to hear their side of the story." Clary tried to calm him.

"They're dangerous! You saw the younger one, he was literally on fire. How can you trust them after that?" He demanded.

"They've been helping us for days, why would they do that if they had evil intentions?" Isabelle snapped, feeling protective over the sibling in the other room.